Falling For You
by syriala
Summary: Tony had expected some form of attention after his stunt in Gulmira. That the army sent two planes was a bit of a surprise. That they also sent the Falcon after him was just the topping on an already shitty day. Until he actually met the guy.


„Hi Rhodey, it's me," Tony said as soon as Rhodey picked up.

"It's who?" Rhodey asked and Tony fondly rolled his eyes. He would never tire of Rhodey giving him shit over his own shit.

"I'm sorry, it is me. You asked, what you were asking about is me" Tony admitted.

"No, see, this isn't a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active warzone, you understand?"

"It's not a piece of equipment, I'm in it, it's a suit. It's me!"

There was silence on the line and then the plane Tony was hanging onto turned.

"Fuck," Tony muttered when it started to spin.

There was no way he could hold on, but when he let go, he crashed right into the other plane that was behind them.

The pilot got out, but there was no chute to see and Jarvis' scan revealed some faulty trigger. It wouldn't open on its own.

The suit was already damaged, but Tony pushed it to its' limit to get to the pilot in time, even though the other plane was hot on his heels. It wasn't difficult activating the chute once he was there and there was a rush of relieve when it opened.

"Tony, you still there?" Rhodey asked and he sounded tense.

"Yeah," Tony replied and for a second all he could hear was Rhodey's sharp intake of breath.

"You have to get out of there," Rhodey said, suddenly urgently, and Tony frowned.

"Why? If you've missed it, I just escaped two of your planes."

"They sent the Falcon when you crashed one of them."

There was a beat of silence where Tony couldn't think of anything to say, but then he figured a lighter mood couldn't hurt anyone. "Technically, it crashed me."

"Tony," Rhodey said and now Tony cursed.

"Fuck! Why did you let them sent the Falcon?"

"There's protocol. I didn't let them do anything," Rhodey told him even though Tony was fully aware of that.

But the Falcon…this could get real messy real fast. It was a top secret program, developed out of a pararescue team, and while Tony had never met the Falcon, he was the one they approached for the gear.

And Tony had outdone himself, if he might say so. Which could mean some serious trouble for him now.

His suit was the peak of technology right now, but the wings weren't to frown at either and Tony had put some very nice toys in the suit that went with it as well. And they could bite him in the ass if he wasn't careful.

"How long do I have?" he asked Rhodey who barked something at someone else and it wasn't even half a minute before he was back on the phone.

"ETA less than a minute. Think you can make it out of there before that?"

"Nope," Tony said, voice forcefully cheerful and now it was Rhodey's time to curse.

"I swear to God if you make me look for you in the desert again, we are no longer friends. That shit is too stressful for me."

"Noted," Tony said, already checking his surroundings. It couldn't be long now. "But you will look for me, right? You have to find me first to end our friendship."

"Of course I will come look for you, but don't make me. Please. I'm not sure Pepper and me can handle this again."

"Then tell them to call him off," Tony tried one last time, but he knew it was futile. Jarvis had already picked up a fast approaching figure.

"I can't, you know that," Rhodey said one last time and Tony sighed.

"I know. Gotta go. He's here." And with that he hung up.

Tony had just enough time to get a good look at the man, a sturdy suit, beautiful red and black wings, goggles and a mask for easier breathing, and then the Falcon was there.

"Jarvis, gimme a connection," Tony demanded and Jarvis got started on that immediately.

It took him barely a minute before he was into the communication. If Tony made it out of this, he would have some suggestions for making their encryption more secure. But that came after.

"Hi," he said while he and the Falcon flew careful rounds around each other, assessing the other man.

He couldn't really make out his face, but he was pretty sure there was surprise in his voice when he answered.

"Hi? That's what you're going to lead with after the stunt you just pulled?"

"To be fair, it wasn't only my stunt," Tony gave back, now hovering in the air and just turning with the other man.

"You flew into a no-fly war zone, endangered some hostages and crashed an army plane. I would say it's your stunt."

"I didn't really endanger the hostages, more like freed them, but semantics right?"

"There was quite the path of destruction behind you," the Falcon said and Tony shook his head.

"That happens when they play with weapons which don't belong to them. They had it coming."

"Not going to disagree on that," the Falcon said and surprised Tony with that.

"You don't disapprove," he said and now the Falcon also hovered in mid air.

"Jarvis, I wanna hear what he's hearing," Tony said, temporarily putting the other man on mute.

"I really don't. But I'm also a soldier, so I can't really let you get away with this," he said, just as he got the green light to engage.

And he didn't waste any time.

If Tony hadn't been listening in, the Falcon would have landed a hit just because of his speed. As it was, Tony cut the repulsors to drop down and evade the attack.

"What are you gonna do? Shoot me out of the sky?" Tony asked while he narrowly dodged every attack.

"That's the order," came the short reply and Tony rolled his eyes.

"And you soldier boys are all about orders, aren't you?" he asked but he didn't really expect an answer.

When the Falcon came too close to him again, he fired another round of flares, but he forgot that he installed a HUD into the goggles, because the Falcon wasn't even fazed by that.

"How about you bring me in instead?" Tony asked, while he tried to get a clear shot at the wing pack on the man's back.

"Would you let me?"

"It's better than shooting _you_ out of the sky," Tony gave back and the man laughed.

"For that you have to hit me first," he said and then made a maneuver that got Tony's head spinning just from watching.

It was also the reason why he was able to shoot Tony.

"Fuck," Tony muttered. "Jarvis, damage?"

"He hit our flight stabilisator. It will be rough from now on."

"Okay, enough playing around. Get me into that wing pack or give me something to hit it with."

"Of course, sir."

Tony had a hard time dodging anything now, but he managed. Barely. The Falcon didn't seem amused by that and he hit him harder every time.

"Jarvis, how thick is that armour of his?"

"The repulsors on the lowest level should work. Otherwise we will penetrate it with our weakest weapon," Jarvis answered and Tony clenched his jaw.

So taking him out that way was a no go if he didn't want to seriously injure the guy.

"Wing pack?" Tony asked when the Falcon landed another hit to his left shoulder and Tony could already feel the bruise forming there. The guy packed a punch.

"Almost, sir."

"Work faster," Tony told him and then fired a repulsor beam at one of the wings.

He only grazed it, but it was enough to slow the Falcon down and Tony smiled.

"I don't think you wanna fall all the way down there," he said and the other man scoffed.

"No offense, buddy, but I don't see a chute on your back. That metal casket is gonna drag you right down, so I wouldn't be too worried about me."

There was a strain to the guy's voice that hadn't been there before and while Tony was pretty sure he hadn't hit him somewhere critical he still had Jarvis do a scan.

"Elevated vital signs," came the court reply and Tony frowned.

"From the fight?"

"I don't think so. It seems more like something has him agitated. Maybe on the brink of a panic attack, even."

"Christ, and they sent him out like this?" Tony asked, very vividly remembering his very own first panic attack he had when he had tried to shower after the cave.

"We're in, sir," Jarvis gave back instead of an answer to Tony's question and Tony immediately started to shut down the wings.

He locked everything in place, allowing a controlled glide, but nothing else. And the Falcon was losing height quickly.

"What did you do, man?" he asked but before Tony could answer, he gave one last shot at him.

"He took out our flight system," Jarvis calmly told him when a lot of red started to flare up.

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that, buddy," Tony gritted out, trying his hardest to slow down his fall.

The repulsors were only working on their lowest level now, but it should be enough to get him down relatively safely.

"Congratulations, now we're both grounded," Tony spat out and the other man laughed.

"We have to make it to the ground first."

Tony had shut off all the warning signs, no need to torture his eyes like that, but there was still a red light that kept flaring up.

"Jarvis, what's that?" he asked but it was really kinda evident.

Something in the wing pack was overheating and about to explode.

"So, let's say your wing pack is about to explode. How damaged will the chute be?" Tony asked and that got him an alarmed look from the Falcon.

"Very," came the tense reply and Tony nodded. That was what he had expected.

He navigated closer to the Falcon and said "Please don't shoot me, I'm trying to save your life."

"After you endangered it."

"Let's be honest here, you endangered it when you let Hammer work on this thing. What, my work wasn't good enough anymore?" Tony asked, because a set up as stupid as this could only come from Hammer himself.

"Tony Stark?" the Falcon asked, while Tony tried to open up the pack with one hand.

"The one and only."

There was a beat of silence before he said "You know, if you hadn't gotten yourself kidnapped they wouldn't have sent me out looking for you and some asshole terrorists wouldn't have shot my wings to hell. We wouldn't even be in this mess then."

Tony really wanted to tell him how right he was but they were out of time. The pack was about to explode any second now and it wouldn't only damage the chute but also tear a hole right through the guys' chest.

"You have to get rid of the wings," Tony told him and there was only a second of hesitation before he scrambled madly at the straps.

"Are you gonna let me drop?" he asked while he undid all the buckles and Tony was already trying to turn him, so that he could stand on his boots.

"What does it look like?" he asked.

"Will your suit carry both of us?"

"It really has to," Tony gave back and then the wings were off.

They dropped down a good thirty meters before Tony leveled out again and the guy was clinging to him like his life depended on it. And since it really did, Tony wasn't about to make a joke about that.

The wings exploded at a relatively safe distance from them, but the blast still reached them and momentarily threw them off balance. Tony cursed a lot, but in the end he managed to keep a tight grip on the Falcon and not fall down himself.

"It's gonna be a rough landing," Tony told him and the guy actually laughed.

"As long as it doesn't involve falling from this height I'm fine with everything. Just get us down."

And that's exactly what Tony did. They narrowly missed a bunch of rocks but in the end they only fell about two meters and they landed on sand.

Compared to his last crash landing in a desert this definitely was a piece of cake.

"Wow," the Falcon said from where he laid next to Tony. "Let's not do this again."

"Fine by me," Tony said and got rid of the helmet.

The Falcon stared at him. "So you're really Tony Stark."

"I said so, didn't I?"

"Yeah," the guy shrugged. "But I didn't believe you. People've been saying you went off the deep end and have some serious depression. This doesn't look like depression."

"A guy gotta work," was Tony's short reply and by the look on his face, the goggles came of around the same time the helmet did, the guy knew exactly what Tony was talking about.

"Sam Wilson," he introduced himself and actually stuck out his hand.

Tony shook away the gauntlet and then grabbed his hand. "Let's not meet under these circumstances ever again."

"Hey, buddy, it was you who crashed that plane. Do not shift the responsibility for this mess to me."

"I didn't crash the damn plane, it flew right into me, okay?"

There was a small smile playing around Sam's mouth and when Tony stared at him he outright laughed.

"Let's agree that there was some fault on both sides."

"I will take 12% of the fault."

Sam raised an eyebrow at him and Tony rolled his eyes. "Right, okay, 15%. But that's it."

"Fine," Sam laughed and then got up. "You hurt?"

"Bruised," Tony told him and rolled his shoulder. "You really know how to punch."

"You enforced this suit. It's all your tech."

Tony looked at the general direction where the wing pack had exploded and then back to Sam who sighed.

"Okay, mostly your tech. I swear to God, I'll never let Hammer touch anything ever again."

"Good," Tony exclaimed and eyed the suit up and down.

"I've made a few improvements lately. You can swing by and I'll make you new wings. Tweak it a bit here and there."

"I thought you dropped out of weapons manufacturing."

"I did. I'm willing to make an exception for this. But if you don't want me to improve it…"

"No, I didn't say that!"

"Thought so," Tony laughed.

"How long till they find us, you think?" Sam asked and Tony quickly peeked inside the helmet.

"Jarvis is sending a signal to Rhodey. Shouldn't be long."

"Rhodey? Colonel Rhodes? So it's true? You two are friends?"

"Yep," Tony replied and then sat down on the ground again.

No reason to stand around waiting for Rhodey when he could also be sitting down.

"They told me that he was the one who got you to work on the Falcon project but I didn't believe it."

"You better do. We two have history. If you ever have the time to, ask him about Spring Break 1987. It's a good story."

"He's gonna murder you for that, isn't he?"

"Yep," Tony said again and laughed. "I wouldn't really tell anyone, but he always gets so flustered. It's cute."

"Mhh," Sam hummed and settled down next to him. "So, I'm guessing there will be a press shitstorm waiting for you when you come back."

"Probably. But first cheeseburger."

"Cheeseburger?"

"I'm gonna make it a tradition. Get lost in a desert, cheeseburger. Does two times count as a tradition?"

"I don't think so." Sam eyed him carefully. "Please don't make it a tradition. They are gonna send me out again to look for you and one time really is enough."

"You looked for me?"

"I was pararescue, that's what I originally did. When you got abducted and they couldn't find you, they eventually brought me in. Hoping that I could do better."

"But you didn't."

"No, I really didn't." There was a beat of silence. "I'm sorry for that."

"Not your fault. Damn caves are a good cover."

"True," Sam said and then they sat in silence until they heard a helicopter approach.

Rhodey was the first one out and Tony had a strong sense of déjà vu. He shook his head to get rid of it, because this was definitely not the same situation.

"You absolute idiot!" were the first words out of Rhodey's mouth and Tony smiled. "You are gonna be the death of me. Are you attached to fucking deserts now? What's wrong with you?" he asked but it didn't stop him from hugging Tony close once he was in reach.

"I knew you were coming for me," Tony said and Rhodey tightened his grip on him.

"Well, if you would just stay at home where I can have an eye on you, I wouldn't have to."

"But it's so boring at home," Tony said with a pout and Rhodey meaningfully looked at the suit.

"Yeah, I can see that. Real boring stuff happens at your home."

"I wanted to tell you, platypus, but you didn't want to listen."

"Okay, I'll give you that," he said with a sight and Tony smiled.

Rhodey turned to Sam and gave him a court nod. "Wilson, everything alright?"

"Except for the fact that the Hammer tech nearly blew up on my back? Yeah, your boy saved me."

Rhodey shot a questioning look at Tony who shrugged.

"I keep telling you that Hammer tech is shit, but no one ever listens to me."

"Maybe because there is so much other shit coming out of your mouth," Rhodey shot back and Tony playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you out of here."

"Great. I am really hungry."

"Tony there's gonna be a debrief. Everyone saw you in the suit."

"First there's gonna be a cheeseburger. Lost in a desert, cheeseburger, I keep saying that."

"He really does keep saying that," Sam helpfully chimed in and Tony turned to him with a bright grin.

"You're gonna join me," he said and put his arm around Sam's waist. "Rhodey, get us out of here, we've got a date."

"Excuse me," Sam said but he didn't slip out from Tony's grasp. "A date?"

"I think since you stranded me here, it's only fair that you buy me dinner."

" _I_ stranded you here? Who disabled my wing pack?"

"It would have blown up either way," Tony dismissed him and pulled him towards the helicopter.

"Tony, do not harass our only Falcon flier."

"Am I harassing you?" Tony asked Sam with a mischievous smile and Sam eyed him from head to toe.

"No, I guess you are not harassing me. But you are the billionaire, so you'll pay for dinner."

"You got yourself a deal!"

"You really do pick up people at the strangest places," Rhodey muttered under his breath and Tony beamed at him.

"But so far nothing has been as interesting as this."

"If there's a standard to uphold, I'm out," Sam declared and Tony laughed.

"Honey, I haven't taken anyone to dinner in years. You're good."

Sam threw a quick glance at Rhodey who gave a small nod.

"And you two can absolutely not be friends. That wouldn't be fair," Tony quickly said but they were already smiling conspiratorially at each other.

"Oh no," was all Tony said to that and Rhodey and Sam laughed.

"Alright, boys, up in the helicopter. Let's get out of here."

"Yes, there's dinner waiting for me," Tony said with a little leer towards Sam who rolled his eyes.

"What you're thinking about is dessert."

"Ew, gross, guys, no one needs to hear that," Rhodey said and now Tony and Sam laughed at him.

"You want something different than cheeseburger?" Tony asked Sam on the flight, but Sam shook his head.

"Wouldn't want you to stop from forming a tradition. Cheeseburger is good. You can take me out to something fancier the next time."

"Oh, I like how that sounds. You got yourself a deal."

Sam smiled at him, all soft and warm, and then leaned closer, just resting their shoulders together. But it was enough to make Tony blush and for Rhodey to roll his eyes.

"This is still work, keep it together until we land again."

"You have no sense for romance, honeybunch," Tony told him and Rhodey groaned.

"And guess why that is," he muttered but turned around to the pilot to give them some space.

"So a next time, hu?" Tony asked and Sam nodded.

"I figured I grounded you and you grounded me, so that makes at least two dinners."

"How come I pay for both?"

"Like I said," Sam smirked. "You're the billionaire. I just got my meager army salary."

"So I'm expected to do all the romancing?" Tony asked and Sam shook his head.

"I can buy you flowers."

Tony laughed. "Sounds good to me."

"Great," Sam said and then rested his head on Tony's shoulder. "But let's not meet like that again, okay?"

"Okay," Tony agreed, but he thought if meeting like this was what got him Sam in his life, then maybe this didn't turn out so bad.

"What do you mean, you know each other?" Steve weakly asked when Sam and Tony just continued to smile at each other.

"We met before," Sam said with a big smile.

"The army sent him after me, during my first outing as Iron Man," Tony eventually explained. "And he shot me out of the sky."

" _After_ you disabled my wing pack, asshole!" Sam protested and Tony casually shrugged.

"It was about to blow up anyway. I'm still not over the fact that you let Hammer of all people work on that."

"You were kinda indisposed," Sam gave back and then quickly kissed Tony.

"Ehm….," Steve mumbled, while Natasha snickered behind her hand.

"So you two are….stepping out?" Steve finally asked and Sam looked at him now.

"He's my boyfriend. And a pain in my ass."

"Fiancé, actually. It really hurts that you keep forgetting that," Tony said and unconsciously smoothed his thumb over the ring on his finger.

"I just like you to remind me of that over and over again. You're a huge sap, did anyone ever tell you that?" Sam said to Tony and drew him closer by his belt loops.

Tony stepped easily into his embrace and when he said "But I'm your huge sap," he had a huge grin on his face.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," Sam murmured against his lips, right before he kissed him.

"Guys," Steve interrupted them uncomfortably but it still took them another short kiss before they finally parted.

"So yes, we know each other," Tony concluded, like that was still an issue and Steve rolled his eyes while Natasha beamed at them.

"What are you looking at, Miss Rushman?" Tony asked with a tease in his voice and she happily shook her head.

"Well, Mr. Stark, if you must know. You being happy. It's a rare sight."

Tony actually blushed at these words and Sam pulled him closer again.

"Well, Sam has a lot to make up for after he shot me out of the sky."

"Not this again," Sam groaned but he would happily argue with Tony about that for the rest of their lives.


End file.
